A state university system in the United States is a group of public universities supported by an individual state, or a similar entity such as the District of Columbia. These systems constitute the majority of public-funded universities in the country. Each state supports at least one such system.

Federal funded colleges and universities are limited to military personnel and government employees. Members of foreign militaries and governments also attend some schools. These schools include the United States military academies, Naval Postgraduate School, and military staff colleges.

A state university system normally means a single legal entity and administration, but may consist of several institutions, each with its own identity as a university. Some states—such as California and Texas—support more than one such system.

State universities get subsidies from their states. The amount of the subsidy varies from university to university and state to state, but the effect is to lower tuition costs below that of private universities. As more and more Americans attend college, and private tuition rates increase well beyond the rate of inflation, admission to state universities is becoming more and more competitive.

Valdosta State University, also referred to as VSU, or Valdosta State, is an American public university and is one of the two regional universities in the University System of Georgia. Valdosta State is located on a 168-acre (0.68 km²) campus at the heart of the city of Valdosta. VSU serves over 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students representing 157 Georgia counties, all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Washington, D.C. and hosts over 300 international students from 76 countries. VSU also offers classes at Moody Air Force Base north of Valdosta in Lowndes County, and Kings Bay Naval Base in Camden County.

Degree levels offered at Valdosta State include: Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, Education Specialist, and Doctoral. The university comprises the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Education, Arts, and Nursing. The Graduate School also includes the Divisions of Social Work and Library Science.

VSU is also home to the six-week residential Governor's Honors Program during the summer for academically and artistically oriented Georgia high school students.

The term black people is used in some socially-based systems of racial classification for humans of a dark-skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups represented in a particular social context. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class and socio-economic status also play a role, so that relatively dark-skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of "whiteness" and relatively light-skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for "blackness" in a particular setting.

As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as "black". But, particularly in the United States, the racial or ethnic classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry, or to exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". As a result, in the United States the term "black people" is not an indicator of skin color but of socially based racial classification.